Playing Cupid
by FadedOut
Summary: Severus decides he should try and get Remus and Tonks together to save himself from being bored by Remus constantly talking about her. Challenge set by around-the-moon
1. Chapter 1

Playing Cupid

It was a cold day in the middle of winter and Severus Snape was sitting in his dungeon-quarters daydreaming.

_The door to his office opened and he saw her robes moving across the room, as if in slow motion. She stopped right in front of him and he looked up into her eyes, thinking that the room had suddenly gotten much warmer than it should have been. "Severus…" she said smoothly, "Severus…"_

"Severus!" he heard a different voice this time, "Are you even listening?"

"Yes, yes of course I am. Carry on, Remus," he replied dryly. All he had been talking about all day was Tonks and he was bored of it to say the least.

"She was at the meeting the other day- did you see her?" Remus asked with a new sparkle in his worn eyes.

"No, Remus. I don't tend to watch her every move like you do, but I'm sure you're going to tell me all about it," he replied, sighing and opening the bottle of firewhisky on his desk and pouring himself another glass.

"Her hair was that really bright shade of pink, you know the one I mean?" Remus asked, his tired eyes shining brightly in the dark room.

Severus just sighed and nodded. He was passed the stage of actually answering Remus by now. He was going to keep talking about her anyway, whether he liked it or not.

"I never used to like pink but now I think it's a nice colour. It really suits her!" Remus exclaimed, beaming.

Severus downed his glass of firewhisky in one mouthful. He just wanted Remus to leave him alone and stop talking about Tonks for once so that he could go back to fantasizing about the woman of his dreams but as Remus burst into another description of something Tonks had done, Severus realised there was little chance of him being allowed to fantasize that night.

He had never really been particularly interested in love but there was one woman who had caught his attention recently and he couldn't help thinking about her only too often lately. However, he didn't think that it was right to talk about the person he was in love with all the time. He felt rather annoyed that Remus didn't take the same view.

"Do you know if she's going to be at the next meeting?" Remus asked, interrupting Severus' thoughts for the hundredth time that evening.

"I don't know and to be quite honest, Remus, I don't give a damn!" Severus snapped back at him, slamming his glass down on the table and giving Remus the harshest glare he could manage.

Remus just laughed and said "Someone's in a bad mood tonight!"

Severus scowled "I think you would be too if you had to listen to someone talk about how much they were in love with someone for the whole evening, non-stop."

Remus' face went pale "I don't love Tonks if that's what you think…" he said, looking slightly worried about something.

Severus just smirked at having revealed the werewolf's secret. He poured himself another glass of firewhisky and then said "If you don't love her, Remus, why do you do nothing but stare at her during every single meeting and talk about her constantly when you're not with her?"

Remus began to blush slightly and Severus just smirked and drank some of his firewhisky, a hint of a smile playing at the corners of his mouth. Remus' crush could become very interesting if he could make sarcastic comments about it at every single Order meeting and it would certainly help to get revenge for the times he had picked on him at school.


	2. Chapter 2

Playing Cupid

A few days later it was the Order's Christmas party and Severus had decided to go just for the free alcohol and the possibility of getting to make fun of Remus some more for having a crush on Tonks. He also needed to give Remus his wolfsbane potion as well as that had been the main reason he had been bored out of his mind a few nights ago when Remus had been in his office at Hogwarts. He was tempted not to give it to him to avoid the boredom that was sure to come whenever Remus visited him to make sure he would make it for that month but then he knew he would stand no chance with the woman he wanted so badly himself.

He walked through the door of Grimmauld Place and noticed that the umbrella stand was on the floor; a sure sign Tonks was there somewhere. He heard Remus laughing in the kitchen and sighed, heading down the corridor. As he approached the doorway, he heard the voice of the woman he was in love with. He froze, unsure of whether to continue to the kitchen or not.

The door opened and Molly was suddenly right in front of him. "Severus, do come in!" she exclaimed, herding him into the kitchen and forcing a bottle into his hand before he even had time to consider going into another room. He then realised that he was standing right next to the woman of his dreams.

Minerva McGonagall.

"Ah, hello Severus! I'm glad you could make it!" she said, smiling brightly at him. "How was your journey?" she asked.

"It was fine, thank you. And yourself?" he asked, his eyes sparkling in an unusually bright manner for such a dark professor.

"It could have been better but I won't complain about it," she replied, smiling at him once again before turning back to talk to Molly.

Severus couldn't help continuing to stare at her for a few moments before hearing Remus and Tonks laughing again and scouring the kitchen for them. His eyes stopped when he found the brightest shade of pink he had ever seen and he found himself wondering how anyone could possibly like it.

He decided he might as well go and comment on how her hair was disturbing him. After all, he had to keep up his snide comments, even at Christmas.

"Miss Tonks, your hair is blinding me," Snape said, not bothering to greet them in any way other than with rudeness.

"At least it isn't as greasy as yours is though, Severus," she replied without a second thought. Remus immediately laughed at what she had said, making Severus' temper rise slightly.

"My hair is not greasy! It is merely shining!" Severus snapped, scowling at her as best as he could whilst being blinded by her fluorescent hair.

"So why are you complaining about Tonks' hair if yours is shiny? You could blind someone with that!" Remus replied, smiling at Tonks.

Severus glared at them both, turned around and walked out of the room. He decided to go and sit in the living room instead. He hoped there would be less bright objects there and that he might be able to enjoy a drink in peace for once.

He found an empty chair and sat in it before anyone had the chance to steal it from right under his nose. He sat there staring into space, then realised that he was actually staring right at Minerva. He blushed slightly and looked away when she looked at him.

"I didn't know you were one of my fan girls," Minerva said to him with a laugh.

"Sorry, I was just thinking. I didn't mean to stare at you, Minerva," he replied, recovering from his few brief seconds of embarrassment, not even noticing that she had called him a girl.

He hadn't heard Remus enter the room but he soon knew he was there when he said "Now who's staring at someone through an Order meeting?"

"This isn't a meeting, Remus, it's a social event to celebrate Christmas," Severus replied sharply, glaring at the werewolf. He noticed that Tonks wasn't with him and found it a little strange that they weren't side-by-side like they so often were whenever he saw them. "Where's Tonks?" he asked.

Remus frowned slightly when he asked about her "She's with Kingsley. They had to talk about something," he replied, looking lost without her beside him.

"They are probably talking about their work," Minerva said, then left the room to go and find some more butterbeer.

Remus nodded with a sad expression on his face and muttered, "Yeah… Probably."


	3. Chapter 3

Playing Cupid

Severus looked at Remus when he seemed really down about Tonks talking to Kingsley and he felt as though they really should be together. After all, he thought that they were both equally annoying and it would stop them breeding with normal people if nothing else.

"Remus, if you care that much about who she's with, why don't you just ask her out?" Severus asked, thinking that if he got them together, Minerva may like him more for being such a good friend to someone who had never really been particularly nice to him.

"Severus, she wouldn't go out with me! I'm a werewolf, I'm fourteen years older than her and I don't even have enough money to look after myself, let alone looking after her as well." Remus sighed, a sad look in his eyes as he looked away from Severus.

"You don't know that, Remus," Severus replied, even though he was thinking the same thing. Tonks was a young successful Auror who deserved an awful lot better than a werewolf with no money but from the way they were always together, Severus was sure she did like him.

Remus didn't even bother to respond to what Severus had said because he could see no reason that Tonks would ever like him in that way. He just sat down heavily on the chair where Minerva had been sitting previously and stared at the ceiling.

Severus rolled his eyes, got up and walked out of the room to get away from the rather depressed Remus. He decided to return to the kitchen to seek out some firewhisky as he had finished his previous drink. Tonks was also there getting herself a bottle of firewhisky as well and Severus had to avoid looking directly at her in order to retain his eyesight.

"Wotcher, Severus," she said to him, passing him a bottle of the firewhisky and opening her own bottle almost simultaneously.

"Miss Tonks…" Severus said, using his usual way of greeting her.

"Have you seen Remus?" she asked before taking a sip out of her bottle of firewhisky. Her hair turned a brighter shade of pink when she said his name and Severus scowled at her for her choice of hair colour for the second time that day.

"Yes, the last time I saw him he was sitting by himself staring at the ceiling in the living room," he replied, a slight smirk on his face at the thought of Remus being lonely for once, the same way he had been the whole time he had been at school because of him and his friends.

Tonks' expression changed when he said that he was staring at the ceiling by himself and she said "Is he alright? It's not like him to do that…"

"How am I supposed to know? Maybe you should go and talk to him," Severus replied, guessing that it would probably be best if he told her himself. He wasn't sure if he would talk to her about it but the only way to get him to talk to her was for them to be together in the first place.

Tonks nodded and immediately disappeared into the living room and Severus decided to try and find Kingsley to find out what Tonks had actually said to him. He noticed him standing on the other side of the kitchen with Minerva and he felt his heart beat speed up considerably.

He took a few deep breathes to steady his heart beat before approaching them and standing beside them, "Kingsley, Minerva," he said, nodding to them both.


	4. Chapter 4

Playing Cupid

Minerva smiled at Severus and he felt his heart beat racing again. He forced himself to look at Kingsley instead so as not to allow himself to start fantasizing again.

"Kingsley, what were you discussing with Miss Tonks earlier?" he asked, knowing that asking such a question would get him some strange looks, being a death eater not so long ago.

"It was just business, things to do with the Ministry. Why do you need to know?" Kingsley replied, a stern look upon his face. Severus felt Minerva's eyes on him and had to try to avert his attention from her gaze.

"I was merely wondering why it was so urgent that you had to speak to her about it at that precise moment," Severus replied, trying to keep his voice sounding as cold and harsh as it usually did but finding it difficult with Minerva nearby.

"As I said, it was just business," Kingsley replied, looking directly into Severus' eyes and instantly regretting it as he remembered he could read minds.

_Kingsley and Tonks were sitting in a quieter room of Grimmauld Place talking to one another. There was nobody else around but they were both wearing the same clothing as they wore tonight so he knew it was that night's conversation he was witnessing. _

"_I don't know if he loves me back though, Kingsley. I think he only wants me as a friend," Tonks said, a tear making it's way down her cheek._

"_Tonks, he loves you. It's obvious he does," Kingsley replied, gently wrapping an arm around her and comforting her._

_He then noticed Remus was standing in the doorway watching Kingsley and Tonks hugging. He saw the sad look in Remus' eyes as he turned and walked away. Severus assumed that was why Remus had acted strangely when Kingsley was mentioned previously._

Severus just looked at Kingsley and nodded, understanding why he hadn't wanted him to see that. After all, he had always made fun of her for being unusual and being madly in love with a werewolf was obviously only another area for him to judge her.

"Severus, what did you see then?" Kingsley asked, unsure of what he had seen and what he hadn't.

"You know what I saw. There's something I need to do," Severus replied, glancing briefly at Minerva before heading back down the corridor.

He heard Minerva say to Kingsley "He didn't see anything bad, did he?" and he sighed to himself, wondering how she could possibly doubt him after all the years they had worked together.

He then heard Tonks' voice and headed towards it.


	5. Chapter 5

Playing Cupid

The tone of her voice was different to how it had been previously in the kitchen and he guessed that she had either spoken to Remus, and not received the sort of response from him that she wanted to receive, or she hadn't spoken to him yet.

He peered around the corner of the door, not wanting to make his presence obvious, and found that Remus wasn't in the room. It was just Tonks and Molly discussing something. He walked into the room so as not to appear too suspicious and they stopped talking as soon as they realised he was there.

"I'd better go and make sure the kitchen is still intact after my boys were in there," Molly said, briefly smiling at Tonks and saying something to her, which he didn't quite catch, before leaving the room.

"Wotcher Severus," Tonks said, a hint of sadness in her voice. Her hair was no longer such a vibrant shade of pink and he knew there was something upsetting her.

"Miss Tonks…" he said, watching her, unsure of what he should say. He never had been particularly good with words when they had to be nice and comforting ones. He was fine with insulting people and twisting words against them but when it came to being reassuring, he just lost the ability to speak.

Tonks glanced up at him and he could tell that she had been crying. Normally, he would have just looked right back at her as coldly as possible but he didn't even look directly at her. He already knew she liked Remus and he had decided to make it his task to get them together.

"He does like you… He just doesn't know how to show it," he said, unsure of whether he should be telling her how Remus felt but guessing he wasn't going to tell her himself so deciding to step in and try and help the process. After all, it could get him in Minerva's good books.

"He doesn't like me, Severus. If he did he would have told me by now," she replied, looking up at him again with a tear in her eye. Her hair had turned to a mouse brown colour now and he knew that she was really upset about Remus' lack of interest in her in her eyes.

"Miss Tonks, he has done nothing but talk about you all evening while you were talking to Kingsley… He thinks you're in love with Kingsley, that's why he hasn't said anything," he said quietly, watching Tonks with his black eyes showing as little emotion as they ever did. As Tonks looked at him she could see that in some strange, twisted way, he did care. She didn't know why but at that moment she didn't want to know.

"He thinks I like _Kingsley_?!" she asked, a tone of clear astonishment in her voice. Severus nodded slowly and Tonks laughed. "He's got that a little wrong, then! Why on Earth would he think that?"

Severus almost laughed but managed to restrain himself "He saw you and Kingsley together this evening and jumped to conclusions, I believe," Severus replied, remembering that Remus hadn't stopped to listen to the conversation between the two of them, he had just seen them hugging and left.

Tonks looked quite surprised that Remus had seen them together that night and said "How did he know where we were? We went upstairs so that he wouldn't follow…"

"I think he just wanted to spend more time with you but then saw you and Kingsley…" he trailed off as she realised what he meant and nodded.

"I should go and find him and explain. Thanks, Severus," she said, her hair changing colour slightly as she left the room in search of Remus.

Severus briefly smiled to himself before sitting down in a chair again and drinking some more of his firewhisky. He wondered whether Minerva would actually like him for helping Remus and Tonks to get together but his thoughts were interrupted almost as soon as they began by Remus entering the room and sitting down heavily in the chair opposite Severus.

He heard Remus muttering something about Tonks and Kingsley as he downed his glass of butterbeer and Severus sighed, realising that Tonks obviously hadn't spoken to Remus yet.

"She doesn't love Kingsley, you know," Severus said, his cold eyes glaring at Remus for interrupting his thoughts of Minerva once again.

"Then why were they all over each other upstairs earlier?" Remus spat at Severus, unable to stop the glare from being returned straight back to him with the harshness of his voice.

"Why don't you ask me yourself rather than asking everyone else about me?" a voice said from the shadows of the doorway behind Remus. He immediately turned around and saw Tonks standing there, a hurt look in her eyes.

"So why were you all over Kingsley earlier then?" he asked her, sounding quite upset about it. He couldn't help the way he felt about her but he wanted her to tell him if she was going to be with someone else. After all, he thought he was one of her closest friends and didn't expect to have to find out who she was dating quite like that.

"I wasn't all over him, Remus. It was just a hug," she glanced at Severus and then back to Remus, "I think we should continue this conversation somewhere a little more private."

Remus glanced over at Severus, then back to Tonks and nodded. He stood up and followed her out of the room in silence, leaving Severus to only hope they managed to work things out between them.


End file.
